Site Mobile Navigation

Church Groups Turn to Sonogram to Turn Women From Abortions

BOWIE, Md., Jan. 26 - Sixteen months ago, Andrea Brown, 24 years old and unmarried, was desperate for an abortion, fearing the disappointment of her parents and the humiliation she might face.

While frantically searching the telephone book one day, she came across the Bowie Crofton Pregnancy Center and Medical Clinic, a church-financed organization that provides counseling and education about sexual abstinence. The receptionist told Ms. Brown that the clinic did not perform abortions or make referrals but that she could come in for an ultrasound to make sure her six-and-a-half-week pregnancy was viable. When she did, everything changed.

"When I had the sonogram and heard the heartbeat -- and for me a heartbeat symbolizes life -- after that there was no way I could do it," Ms. Brown said recently as she revisited the clinic and watched her daughter, Elora, now 9 months old, play at her feet.

In the battle over abortion, opponents say they have discovered a powerful new tool: sonograms. And over the last 18 months, they have started major fund-raising campaigns to outfit Christian crisis pregnancy centers with ultrasound equipment.

The groups, including the Southern Baptist Convention and the evangelical organization Focus on the Family, have spent $20,000 to $30,000 apiece on ultrasound machines, and some of the clinics are vying for more expensive state-of-the art machines that show the fetus in three dimensions. Focus on the Family has budgeted $4.2 million in the current fiscal year for the machines and on training on how to use them.

The Bowie clinic, which bought its machine itself, has been a pioneer for such groups. The fund-raising is a sign of how the opponents of abortion are dividing their efforts -- seeking to chip away at abortion through legislation but also waging a battle for women's hearts. And it comes at a time when leaders of both major political parties are talking about making abortion rare.

President Bush said in a recent interview that he considered it his duty to help people "understand there are alternatives to abortion, like adoption." And Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, recently affirmed her support of abortion rights but said that the opposing sides should find "common ground" to reduce abortion by preventing unwanted pregnancies though sexual education and abstinence counseling.

Places like the Bowie center are a front line in the struggle over abortion, and the clinic reported to the police that on the eve of the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision last month, its windows were smashed and it was spray painted with graffiti saying "Choice."

Such centers, many financed by churches and church groups, try to persuade women through counseling to carry their pregnancies to term, and often provide prenatal care and pregnancy tests and sometimes clothing and supplies.

Supporters of abortion rights say that a large number of the centers lure women by leaving the impression that they do, in fact, perform abortions and subsequently do not give young women a full picture of their choices.

"Generally, their treatment of women who come in is coercive," said Susanne Martinez, vice president of public policy at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "From the time they walk in to these centers, they are inundated with information that is propaganda and that has one goal in mind. And that is to have women continue with their pregnancies."

Most centers still do not have ultrasound machines. But at those that do, the results of performing sonograms have been startling, abortion opponents say. A survey by the Heidi Group, a Christian evangelical nonprofit organization that advises such centers on fund-raising and administration, found that those using counseling alone reported persuading 70 percent of women considering abortion to abandon the idea. In centers with ultrasound machines, that number jumped to 90 percent, said Carol Everett, the group's chief executive. Such statistics could not be independently verified.

Dr. Sandra M. Christiansen, medical director of the Carenet Pregnancy Center of Frederick, Md., which also has its own ultrasound machine, said, "The motivation is that man and woman are made in God's image, that life is precious."

Dr. Christiansen, who is also a member of the medical advisory board of Carenet, an umbrella group of such centers, added, "Women have a right to know what is going on inside their bodies, and we want to provide women with critical information as they face a life-altering procedure and decision. Women will be empowered to choose life."

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

Groups that favor abortion rights, however, see the technique as a pressure tactic. Nancy Keenan, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, said that while ultrasounds were legitimate medical care for pregnant women, "they shouldn't be misused to badger or coerce women by these so-called crisis pregnancy centers."

"With or without ultrasound," Ms. Keenan said, "women understand the moral dimensions of their choices."

Estimates of the number of centers around the country vary considerably, from 2,300, according to Focus on the Family, to 3,500, according to the Heidi Group. Focus on the Family said that about 425 centers might already have ultrasound machines. All provide free services, and most stay out of lobbying, the anti-abortion groups said. By contrast, there are 4,600 federally financed family planning clinics that provide abortion referrals, and hundreds of private facilities that perform abortions or abortion counseling, according to Naral Pro-Choice America.

Many of the crisis pregnancy centers have affiliations with church groups. The Bowie center, for example, gets financial support from individuals and local Roman Catholic, Baptist, other Protestant and evangelical churches, and its staff and volunteers span the list of denominations, too, said the director, Pam Palumbo.

"Faith plays the role in what we do here," Ms. Palumbo said.

She noted that the center made it clear from its advertising and its first interactions with clients that it did not perform abortions.

Such clinics began to acquire ultrasound machines more than five years ago, operators said. But in the last 18 months, the Southern Baptist Convention and Focus on the Family each started programs to buy ultrasound machines for the centers and to finance the training of staff members.

"We never thought this was in the realm of the possible until 18 months ago when one of our vice presidents challenged us and said, 'Why not do this?"' said Dr. Julie Parton, director of the Focus on the Family's pregnancy resource ministry. "We're a Christian organization and believe that God is behind this effort. If the Lord chooses to bless us, the money will come in."

The groups say donations have flowed steadily, from individuals, churches and businesses. The Psalm 139 Project, which is the Southern Baptist program, bought ultrasound machines last year for two centers in Indiana and Texas. Focus on the Family, which covers 80 percent of ultrasound costs, helped 70 centers last year buy equipment and train staff and hopes to outfit at least 600 more by 2010, Ms. Parton said.

About 45 percent of women who test positive for pregnancy at the Bowie center are "abortion-minded," Ms. Palumbo, the center's director said. The use of ultrasounds has convinced 50 to 75 percent of those women to change their minds, Ms. Palumbo said.

Besides pregnancy counseling and ultrasounds, the center also dispenses free prenatal vitamins, offers parenting classes and help with broader issues like health care, family budgets and résumé building.

What the centers shy away from, critics charge, is giving women full scientific information about abortion and birth control. For example, the Bowie center distributes leaflets that state there is a link between abortion and a greater risk of breast cancer. Studies by the National Cancer Institute in 2003 and the University of Oxford last year concluded that abortion did not increase such risks.

And like most such centers, the Bowie clinic advocates only abstinence to prevent unplanned pregnancies. "Many of the groups that oppose abortion also oppose the birth control pill and most forms of contraception, except maybe rhythm method," said Ms. Martinez of Planned Parenthood. "We're very concerned about what they do. It's part of the constant battle to keep the facts out in the public."

Ms. Brown said she was trying to practice abstinence when she got pregnant and adds, "In the future, I plan to remain practicing abstinence till I get married." She looked at her daughter still playing on the floor and said with a laugh, "I have a constant reminder of what can happen if I don't."

We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports,
and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

A version of this article appears in print on February 2, 2005, on Page A00001 of the National edition with the headline: Church Groups Turn to Sonogram To Turn Women From Abortions. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe